Shouldn’t public safety be a top priority of state government? Not in progressive, ultra-blue California.

LA Times

State trying to count parolees who have ditched GPS trackers

California corrections officials, expressing concern over a rise in paroled sex offenders disabling their GPS tracking devices, said Monday that the problem may be larger than they believed.

On Sunday, The Times reported a 28% rise in warrants issued for GPS tampering since October 2011, when the state reduced penalties for parole violators and made counties responsible for them.

Officials in the Department of Corrections had stated for months that such cases numbered in the hundreds. Then, earlier this month, they said they knew of 3,200 cases from October 2011 through December 2012.

On Monday, department spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman said that because that tally included only cases in which parole revocation hearings were held, the actual number of incidents may be larger.

The state’s figures “also may not include those [GPS violators] still on the loose,” she added.

This is of a piece with this story, which we noted

California unable to disarm 19,700 felons and mentally ill people

California authorities are empowered to seize weapons owned by convicted felons and people with mental illness, but staff shortages and funding cuts have left a backlog of more than 19,700 people to disarm, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.